SLI’s CSF Division is pleased to report that the State of North Carolina has elected to enter into Phase 3 of the contract to provide assessment, planning, and assistance in the reform of its social services programs.
SILVER SPRING, MD (May 2, 2019) North Carolina’s state law provides a vision for systemic change in the social services programs. The law created the Social Services Working Group (SSWG) charged it with addressing regional supervision to better direct and support the delivery of services in the counties. Part of the law provides for “the selection of a third-party organization to develop a plan to reform the State supervision and accountability for the social services system, including child welfare, adult protective services and guardianship, public assistance, and child support enforcement.”
The Center for the Support of Families (CSF) was awarded the third-party contract on March 1, 2018, to work with North Carolina on its critical Social Services and Child Welfare reform.
CSF worked from March to August and issued the North Carolina Social Services Preliminary Reform Plan and the North Carolina Child Welfare Preliminary Reform Plan. These plans documented the current framework for service delivery, detailed findings from the assessment of that framework, and provided preliminary recommendations for improvement. Both reports were presented to the Joint Legislative Oversite Committee for Human Services. Beginning in September, CSF began work on Phase 2 which further assessed and refined recommendations, monitored implementation of reforms. Final Reform Plans will be released in early May 2019.
These reports and the actions needed to implement the recommendations are but one part of a dynamic and complex program improvement process being undertaken by the North Carolina General Assembly, the Department of Health and Human Services, the 100 county Departments of Social Services, the SSWG, and related state and county departments serving citizens of North Carolina. These reforms include Medicaid transformation, development, and initial implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with specific performance measures, planning for the Family First Preservation Services Act (FFPSA), and the ongoing implementation and assessment of NC FAST. (North Carolina Families Accessing Services through Technology is a program designed to improve the way DHHS and county departments of social services do business).
During Phase 3, CSF will focus on assessment and recommendations for reform of the Adult Protective Services and Guardianship, the implementation of an education collaborative to provide financial support for students earning BSW and MSW degrees who will then work in the DHHS Child Welfare Program, the completion of the federally required five year strategic plan, and a Dashboard to provide both internal staff and the public information on the performance of DHHS’ social service delivery system.
About CSF
Since 1991, CSF has formed partnerships with more than 44 state and local human service agencies to deliver effective and efficient services in areas of child support, child welfare, welfare-to-work transition, childcare, and other programs relating to children and families. CSF’s work for children, youth and families places particular emphasis on child support, paternity and custody, child maltreatment, foster care and child welfare, children in poverty, adolescent pregnancy and parenting, and juvenile justice. Within these fields, CSF delivers a variety of services, including strategic planning, policy analysis, business process analysis and reform, implementation assistance, and training and coaching for policy and program delivery staff at the federal, state, and local level. For more information, visit SLI’s Center for the Support of Families.
About SLI Government Solutions
SLI Government Solutions (SLI) is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, with project locations in over a dozen capital cities across the US. SLI helps federal, state and local government agencies build quality and innovation into their system implementations and program improvement initiatives. SLI is committed to the use of a standards-based quality management methodology that has been proven effective in a wide range of system implementations and process improvement projects. SLI’s SQM3 methodology is ISO 9001:2015 certified.